Arthur says twin-spin attack ideal

Australia coach Mickey Arthur says ideally he'd like to have left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty and right-arm spinner Nathan Lyon in the side to take on India in Saturday's second Test.

But it's not as easy as all that, given the importance of team balance and not overloading the lineup with five specialist bowlers which would weaken the batting.

One solution following Tuesday's eight-wicket defeat in the first Test in Chennai would be to drop one of Australia's three pacemen and use seam-bowling allrounder Moises Henriques to support the other two quicks and the two spinners.

However the hiding Lyon received from India's batsmen makes one wonder if two spinners would receive double the punishment in Hyderabad this weekend.

Arthur says England's ploy was to use Panesar early and turn to the offspinner late in the match.

"Ideally you want both, and I did a lot of looking at the England series and they used Panesar a lot," coach/selector Arthur says.

"But when the wickets start breaking up, your offspinner to the right-handers becomes dangerous because you've got to keep playing him all the time.

"Ideally, it would be nice to have the pigeon pair."

Australia were bowled out for 380 and 241 by India's spinners on Chennai's crumbling red-clay pitch. The home side lost two wickets on Tuesday's fifth day of play as they chased down a target of 50 to win.

Lyon took 3-215 and 1-29.

In contrast to India's three-pronged spin attack led by Ravi Ashwin (12 wickets), paceman James Pattinson (six) led Australia's bowling efforts in a lineup that included three specialist quicks, a seam-bowling allrounder and one spinner.

"That's going to be the million-dollar question. It's easy in hindsight having a look at how the wicket ended up," Arthur said.

"You probably would have liked two spinners on there. However our quicks took most wickets (eight to pace and four to spin).

"We didn't get a massive return from spin in this game.

"Looking at the way it ended up probably two spinners (would have worked better). But our quicks were the most likely out there, so I am not sure which way really.

"It will be interesting to see how he (Lyon) pulls up after this Test match," Arthur added.

"Only he knows how he will approach things if he plays in the next Test match and how that is going to go."

Captain and selector Michael Clarke says Doherty, who played two Tests in 2010, bowled well in the warm-up game against India A earlier this month when the left-armer claimed 3-108.

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